Too Big To Fail

6:00pm

Intelligence Squared U.S. Debates

Airs Sunday, December 15 at 6 p.m. To prevent the collapse of the global financial system in 2008, The Treasury committed 245 billion in taxpayer dollars to stabilize America’s banking institutions. Today, banks that were once “too big to fail” have only grown bigger. Were size and complexity at the root of the financial crisis, or do calls to break up the big banks ignore real benefits that only economies of scale can pass on to customers and investors? Arguing for the motion are Richard Fisher, President & CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and Simon Johnson, Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT. Arguing against the motion are Douglas Elliott, a Fellow in Economics Studies at the Brookings Institution and Paul Salzman, President of the Clearing House association.